


The Story of a woman who was called by the sea and ignored it

by scalira



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 15:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6085840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scalira/pseuds/scalira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(and the girl who called the sea and was ignored)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Story of a woman who was called by the sea and ignored it

Tracy Stewart loves the ocean. She grew up with the salty scent in her nose, with the waves crashing onto her skin when she was standing in the cold water, with sand between her toes and in her clothes.

She could spend hours staring over the horizon, imagining, dreaming. She used to write stories in her notebook, about luring creatures and tails glinstering with sunlight.

She dreamt, too.

Tracy didn’t remember if she wrote because she dreamt, or if she dreamt because she wrote. But either way, her stories and dreams often interlaced or complemented each other.

She always dreamt about the same thing, but never fully remembered it when she woke up. She remembered the water, though. She remembered swimming and diving, touching dolphins as they crossed her. She remembered tails in bright colors and dark hair and pale skin and the crushing feeling of having lost something important.

And then, when she’s walking the shore one day at dusk, all her dreams come rushing back to her at once.

At first she thinks she’s still somehow dreaming. She pinches herself in the leg and when she feels a pang of pain she starts running towards the beach, tripping and slipping over the loose sand until she reaches it.

Reaches _her_.

The girl is completely naked, her dark hair covering her face and her knees pulled up to her chest. Black bruises cover her otherwise pale-as-the-moon skin.

Tracy sinks down onto her knees next to the girl and gently touches her shoulder.

The girl winces, moves away from her touch. But she doesn’t wake up, and Tracy tries again.

“Hey,” she says softly.

“Hey, are you okay?”

The girl moves again, and this time she reaches up to her face to wipe the hair out of her eyes.

Tracy gasps for air once she sees the girl’s face, and memories crash over her like the merciless sea. She almost falls over from the force they hit her with.

She remembers, and she understands.

They weren’t dreams, they were never dreams. They were memories.

She sees herself, standing hip high in the sea, talking to someone, laughing. She sees dark hair, a round face. A mole under her left eye. She sees the creature reaching for her hand, and Tracy giving it to her. She sees herself being dragged into the ocean, but it isn’t a vicious attack or a trap. The water doesn’t hurt, she doesn’t feel panicked. All she feels is excitement, relief. The creature’s tail brushes against Tracy’s flat chest, it turns her head to smile at her.

Teeth too sharp to be human, but not sharp enough to scare her.

She sees others, too. Young and old, tails catching the sunlight and reflecting rainbows. They’re all laughing and singing, and it had sounded like the song of the sea, like the song of freedom.

Now she knows it had never been a song of freedom. It had been a song of initation.

Tracy remembers her feet itching, her legs trembling. Her bones going weak, her mind _begging_ for it. She wanted to join the women of the sea, she wanted to take the ocean as her lover.

Tracy almost drowned when she was nine.

At least, that’s what her parents told her. The truth is that the women of the sea had taken her, and something had made them decide she hadn’t been worthy enough to become one of them.

“Paige.” The name rolls off her lips like an ancient song, like a poem. She’s sure the creature had never told her its name, but it’s like the wind had whispered it to her.

Paige looks older now, more mature. Her chest is no longer flat like Tracy’s had once been, her hair is longer and more wild to match her home.

But there’s one important thing missing.

“Paige, where is your tail?”

She’s still dazed, disorientated, and Tracy starts to panic. Did someone take it, did someone hurt her? She tugs at her shoulder more urgently now.

“Paige, where’s your tail?”

Paige finally seems to notice her. She looks Tracy up and down and then she smiles and throws her arms around her.

“Tracy!” She exclaims, and Tracy realizes she has never forgotten her voice.

“Oh, beautiful Tracy, how you’ve grown! Looks like you grew out of those awkward limbs even without our help.”

Tracy carefully pulls Paige’s arms from her neck and pulls them to her sides.

“Paige, _where is your tail_?”

“Oh!” Paige cheers, jerking her eyes away from Tracy’s face to look at her legs.

“Oh, they’re beautiful!” She wiggles her toes, giggles when she stretches her legs.

Then she looks back at Tracy, her smile reminding Tracy once again that she is too sharp to be human, too foreign to fit in.

“It’s a Blue Moon tonight!” She says, as if she explains everything.

When she sees that Tracy doesn’t get it, she sighs and combs her fingers through Tracy’s hair.

“How I wish my sisters had accepted you that day. You would understand what this means.”

“But they didn’t, and I don’t. What’s a Blue Moon?” It’s not what she wanted to ask, not really. She wanted to ask why they hadn’t accepted her, why she hadn’t been good enough to be taken by the sea.

“Every ten years, young mermaids get the chance to be human for one night, to walk the shore under the light of the Blue Moon. We lose our tail and get legs instead. It’s a pretty big thing for us.”

Then she shrugs, and it looks so human it’s almost ugly. Everything about Paige is otherworldly, special, magical. Tracy doesn’t want humanity to taunt her.

“The tide brought me here.”

And then she reaches for Tracy’s face, strokes her cheek. Her skin smells like the sea.

“And you found me.”

Tracy jerks back and gets up, a sudden wave of rage hitting her.

“You’re angry,” Paige nods.

“Heck yeah I am!”

“Why?”

“Because… because -” and suddenly she realizes hot tears have been stinging in her eyes since she found Paige lying in the sand, now threatening to spill more than ever.

She wants to say: because you didn’t take me, because you left me to watch cancer eat my mom, to watch addiction eat my dad, to watch loneliness and depression eat me.

She says: “Because I wasn’t good enough.”

Paige scrambles to her feet, almost falling over once she’s standing. Tracy’s hands automatically shoot to her waist to steady her.

“Tracy, you _were_ good enough. You just weren’t ready.”

She carresses her cheek again.

“You have always had a big sense of responsibility, even when you were young. You couldn’t leave your father to grieve your mother alone. Not then. Not yet.”

Tracy closes her eyes, nuzzles in Paige’s soft hand as tears drip down her face.

Then Paige falters again, her new legs trembling and Tracy steps forward to support her weight.

“Come on,” she says.

“I’ll get you some clothes. Are you hungry?”

Paige nods.

“Yeah. What do humans eat?”

Tracy grins.

“Oh, just you wait.”

* * *

Tracy somehow knows mermaids can’t stomach meat and she isn’t cruel enough to serve fish, so their dinner consists of fruit, nuts and a lot of honey.

Paige seems to be particularly fond of the latter, tilting her head backwards to squirt some of the golden liquid into her mouth every few minutes.

“Do people eat this everyday?” She asks, her mouth full of grapes and her fingers slipperly from the mango she’s holding.

“No, not really. We eat meat and fish and pasta. Stuff like that.”

Paige turns even paler than she already was.

“You _eat_  fish? That’s just cruel, Tracy!”

“Not me though!” The other girl quickly stammers.

“I don’t eat fish and very rarely do I eat meat. I don’t like the texture.”

Paige nods as if she knows what she’s talking about, licks her fingers and stands.

Tracy gave her one of her only long, light dresses since Paige straight up refused to wear pants or even shorts, and now the fabric is flowing over her body like her own personal waves, like she never truly left the water.

Now that she thinks about it, almost everything about Paige reminds Tracy of the ocean. Her hair; wild and black like a stormy sea, her curves; like the soft ripples you get when you throw a small rock in the water, her dress; like a calm sea on a sunny day.

“What else do humans do, besides eating?” Paige wonders, and Tracy snaps out of it to look at the girl in front of her.

“Uh- they, uh. Talk, mostly. Watch a movie, maybe we can go on a stroll over the beach later. If you want.”

Paige smiles and nods, pulling Tracy away from the food on the table and towards her couch. She plops onto it and shuffles closer to Tracy once she sits down too.

Mermaids probably don’t know what personal space is.

Tracy tries to pretend it bothers her.

And then they start talking, about everything. Paige wants to know everything about Tracy’s life, even the tragic, dark chapters. She listens to her stories about her mom, about how she would often go into the sea with her when she was little. Paige says she remembers. She remembers seeing a woman, almost as beautiful as Tracy is now, carrrying a small child into the ocean.

She tells Tracy her sisters had thought the woman had come to offer her to them, like humans do more often. But when they had presented the to her, the woman had shielded the child with her own body.

“She said you weren’t ready yet,” Paige whispers, like she’s revealing a secret.

“She said we should try again in a few years. So we did, but you still weren’t ready.”

Tracy blinks, stares at Paige.

“How do you know this? Surely you can’t have been old enough to know what was happening?”

“Mermaids tell stories too, Tracy. And everyone knows the story about the woman who was called by the sea and didn’t answer.”

Tracy’s jaw drops.

“You mean my mom… the mermaids asked her to join them?”

“Legend has it your mother was a mermaid once. But on her Blue Moon, she fell in love and refused to go back.”

“Can mermaids do that? Just refuse to go back?”

“We are taught that they aren’t, that’s why the story is so popular. But I guess love is a more powerful weapon than rules, isn’t it?”

Tracy thinks about her parents, then. She normally tries to avoid thinking about them _together_ , because that’s just too painful for her. But she thinks about them now, about how happy and in love they seemed to be. How her mother’s death broke her father, drove him to addiction and then death.

Yeah, love definitely is a more powerful weapon.

Paige changes the subject when she sees Tracy doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. She talks about her home in the ocean, in sea caves. About how she and her friends would lie on sandbanks and fantasize about the human world, about walking on two legs and finding someone to kiss.

When Tracy frowns and asks why mermaids were excited to kiss a human, Paige starts blushing.

“It’s silly,” she dismisses.

“It’s supersticion, really. Mermaids think… well, they think a human kiss brings them fortune, a happy, long life. When you’ve been kissed, the evil spirits stay away.”

“What evil spirits?”

“Uh - I think humans call them… sirens.”

“I thought mermaids and sirens were the same thing?”

Paige gasps, standing up so fast it’s almost a blur.

“Tracy, you must be joking! Sirens are vicious, evil creatures. They hide in the depths of the ocean, where no light touches the sand. They only show their faces to lure people to their death or to steal mermaids away to make them their own.”

“And a human’s kiss would prevent that?”

Paige sinks back onto the couch with a sigh.

“Yes.”

“And you believe it?”

She shrugs.

“It’s what I’ve been told my whole life.”

Tracy looks at her, eyes darting from the mole on her cheek to her lips and back. She swallows, clutches her hands.

“So, do you want one?”

“One what?”

Tracy bites her lips, suddenly nervous.

“A kiss. From me.”

Paige goes big-eyed, looking more nervous all of the sudden than Tracy has ever seen her.

Then she takes a deep breath.

“Yes. Yes, I’d like that.”

“Okay. Stay still.”

Paige freezes on the spot, her nails digging into her legs when Tracy moves closer.

She doesn’t move when Tracy brings their faces closer, stays perfectly still when she softly presses a kiss onto her lips.

When Tracy pulls away, Paige is blushing again.

“That’s it?” She asks. Tracy smiles at the disappointment in her voice.

“There could be more. If you want.”

Paige nods.

“Show me.”

* * *

If Tracy wouldn’t know where Paige came from, she could believe she was human from afar. But up close and personal, it’s pretty clear she is better, more magical. Her skin is softer than the skin of the people Tracy’s been with, almost like the skin of a peach. She tastes different too. Even saltier, stronger.

But the sounds she makes, the little moans and begs, and the gripping fingers in Tracy’s hair are as humn as they come.

“Do humans do this more often?” Paige pants, nuzzling in Tracy’s neck.

Tracy chuckles.

“Yeah. It’s not always this good, but we do this more often.”

Then she shifts to face Paige.

“You mean mermaids don’t do this kind of stuff? Not even with male mermaids, to… you know, reproduce?”

Paige giggles, as if Tracy has just said something naughty.

“Sily Tracy! There are no male mermaids! And we don’t repoduce.”

“Then how-”

“We rely on the women of the land, those the sea calls to. We take their daughters and raise them as their own. That’s the only way to become a mermaid.”

“So you were human once too? Do you remember anything from it?”

Paige smiles and shakes her head.

“No, I was very young. The only parent I have ever known is the sea. And she’s a very kind one.”

They fall silent after that, Paige reaching out to run her fingers through Tacy’s hair and kiss her nose.

“I like kissing,” she decides.

“I want to do it more.”

“Then let’s,” Tracy whispers, and she pulls the mermaid back into her arms.

* * *

Somewhere during the night, they end up outside. They make love again on the beach, sand sticking to their sweaty bodies and the Blue Moon turning their skin a blue-ish pale. The sea licks at their feet like a needy partner, liike it wants to join.

They fall asleep in each others’ arms, legs tangled up together and fingers intertwined on Tracy’s stomach. Paige’s skin isn’t warm like the skin of humans, but cool like a sea breeze. It’s nice.

She wakes Tracy up right before dawn, when the sky is turning purple on the horizon.

She looks sad.

“Tracy, I have to go.”

Tracy is immediately wide awake, sitting up to grab Paige’s hand.

“No, please stay.”

“I can’t, you know that.”

“My mother did it! Why can’t you?”

Paige looks down at their interlaced fingers.

“I belong to the sea, Tracy. No matter how much I enjoyed tonight, I would never be happy as a woman of the land.”

“Then- then take me with you!”

“Tracy…”

“Please!” Then softer: “Paige, please. I’m ready.”

The mermaid smiles, but it’s just a shadow of the smiless racy is used to.

“I know. But it’s too late, Tracy. You’re too old. If I would take you with me, you would just drown.”

“No. No, that’s - that’s not true. Try it, please, Paige. I can’t stand it here anymore, I wan’t to go with you. I want to go home.”

Paige cups Tracy’s cheek.

“I’m sorry,” she says before pressing one last kiss on Tracy’s lips and standing up.

Tracy watches her stride into the ocean, the waves crashing around her feet like a dog would greet its owner, like a cat would rub against a leg.

And she runs.

She runs towards Paige, breaking the waves as she runs into the water.

“Paige, wait, please!”

But Paige is moving too fast, once again reminding Tracy that this is her home, that this is her parent. The sea will make sure Paige gets home safely.

She turns around one last time, waves and then gracefully dives into the water. It shouldn’t be possible, it isn’t deep enough to dive - the water is barely reaching Tracy’s thighs. But when she runs towards the spot Paige stood two seconds ago, there’s nothing there.

She’s gone.

“No! Paige!” Her scream pierces through the early morning, startling a flock of birds out of their hiding spot. But the sea is as calm as ever, not a ripple in sight.

Tracy drops to her knees, the water is at her neck now.

She sits there until she’s shivering so hard she can’t see clearly anymore, letting the ocean embrace her like its long lost daughter, and when she closes her eyes, she can pretend it’s like coming home.

* * *

There once was a woman who was called by the sea and ignored it, choosing her lover on the land over her sisters in the ocean.

And there once was a girl who called the sea and was ignored, looking over the horizon every single day, hoping to see a glimpse of her lover in the water.

Tracy Stewart drowned.

At least, that’s what they assume. Legend has it that she just walked straight into the sea one day, dressed in a long, flowing dress that had once belonged to her lover.

Some, the ones who knew Tracy, say she was taken. They say the women of the sea claimed her body and honored her like one of their own.

They say that, if you listen very carefully, you can still hear the weeps of her sea lover carried on the wind.

And in the end, love is indeed a more powerful weapon than any other.

She had always loved the ocean, and now she was finally home.

**Author's Note:**

> This pairing is slowly consuming me help


End file.
